Sunflower domestication alleles support single domestication center in eastern North America.

ABSTRACT: Phylogenetic analyses of genes with demonstrated involvement in evolutionary transitions can be an important means of resolving conflicting hypotheses about evolutionary history or process. In sunflower, two genes have previously been shown to have experienced selective sweeps during its early domestication. In the present study, we identified a third candidate early domestication gene and conducted haplotype analyses of all three genes to address a recent, controversial hypothesis about the origin of cultivated sunflower. Although the scientific consensus had long been that sunflower was domesticated once in eastern North America, the discovery of pre-Columbian sunflower remains at archaeological sites in Mexico led to the proposal of a second domestication center in southern Mexico. Prev

SUBMITTER: Blackman BK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3161615 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature